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NEXT FMA MEETING: 17 AUGUST (BRISBANE) AND 25 AUGUST (SYDNEY)
A MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT
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After two years of Covid-19 restrictions, it was such a pleasure to meet together with so many of you
again for our 2022 National Conference in Toowoomba, Queensland.
It was a great Conference with a great roll up at Toowoomba and a great crowd logged in virtually.
Our floodplain management network really responded so well to the return of “face to face” conferencing with great participation by all attendees and great support from our loyal sponsors and
exhibitors.
The program was jam packed with excellent live and recorded presentations and great poster presentations with plenty to talk about after this year’s costliest floods in Australia’s
history.
I know I am using the word “great” a lot here but I have to say that the whole Conference from start to finish was GREAT.
My many thanks go out to all our sponsors, supporters and all involved in the preparation, organisation and delivery of what is “simply the best” Conference.
Our next National Conference will be in Sydney on 23 to 26 May 2023 and it will be held right on the edge of Sydney Harbour at the incredible Luna Park Conference
Centre.
If you can only go to one Conference in 2023 I suggest that you save the dates for this one and start planning your week in Sydney now.
It will be great!
ID
Ian Dinham | FMA President
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FMA NATIONAL CONFERENCE WRAP UP
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During the middle of May, the FMA Conference took over the beautiful city
of Toowoomba, Queensland. The Conference was a great success and allowed delegates to reconnect and network with flood risk professionals from all over the nation and
overseas. During the three days of the Conference, FMA heard presentations, discussions, and keynotes not only in-person but also virtually. This was the first event that was held through both mediums and allowed access to those who were not able to travel.
The Empire Theatre provided a very dramatic background for the return of face-to-face professional development and networking. The field trips allowed delegates to gain a greater understanding of the flood-related challenges
faced by the local area, including Grantham and the surrounds. They proved to be very eye-opening and informative for all who were able to attend.
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The highlight of the event was the FMA Excellence Awards, with the winners being announced at the Gala Dinner (which was spectacular in its own right):
FMA IAG YFM Young Flood Risk Manager of the Year Award
Erin Hughes, HARC
FMA Allan Ezzy Flood Risk Manager of the Year Award
Bill Syme,
TUFLOW
FMA ICA Flood Risk Management Project of the Year Award
Winner
Wollongong City Council for Implementing ARR2019 in
Wollongong
Highly Commended
Water Technology, Synergy Solutions and Ipswich City Council for Ipswich
Integrated Catchment Plan
The Harold Sternbeck Medal for best presentation at the Conference and the Outstanding Young Presenter Award will be announced shortly, as the judges continue to evaluate and deliberate the
presentations. These Awards will be presented to the winners at the upcoming FMA Meetings in Brisbane and Sydney, where a condensed version of the winning presentations will be provided.
The FMA Conference would not have been able to go ahead, especially at such a high level without the support of our sponsors and
exhibitors:
Gold Sponsors – IAG and Toowoomba City Council
Silver Sponsors – NSW Department of Planning and Environment,
Autodesk, NSW SES, TUFLOW, Queensland Reconstruction Authority and the Bureau of Meteorology.
Bronze Coffee Card Sponsor –
Aquamonix
Bronze Sponsor Conference Dinner – Royal
HaskoningDHV
Bronze Sponsor Casual Dinner –
WMAwater
Lanyard Sponsor –
HDR
Conference Stationery Sponsor – Allan &
Dennis
Drink Bottle Sponsor –
JBP
Session Sponsor – Cardno, now
Stantec
Trade Exhibitors – 12ds, Australian Concrete Mats, waterRIDE, awma Water Control
Solutions, Bluemont, Campell Scientific, Royal HaskoningDHV, Autodesk, Aquamonix, Composites by Wagners, Spatial Innovation, Manly Hydraulics Laboratory, Barko Security, Hydro Response, Geodesign Barriers, Wight Water Environmental.
Conference papers that have been made available by the presenters are now accessible exclusively in the Members' Section of floods.asn.au. Papers from 2021 are now publicly available.
We look forward to hosting you at the FMA Conference in Sydney next year – save the date now of 23-26 May 2023.
CONFERENCE COUNCILLOR SESSION PROVIDES VALUABLE INSIGHT
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FMA President Ian Dinham has said that the Councillor Breakfast Forum at the recent FMA National
Conference has provided valuable insights into the concerns and challenges facing elected Local Government representatives when dealing with flood risk management issues.
Issues raised included support for rural and regional councils, the cumulative impacts of development, the need to discuss options to relocate, retrofit, or repair before not after a flood event, how Councillors can get involved
in development of floodplain policies and strategies, and how to encourage greater attendance by Councillors at the Conference.
Mr Dinham said that Councillors are the leaders in the flood risk management process, nothing happens without Councillors voting for the policies, strategies and funding for these essential activities to succeed. “That’s why
it’s important that Councillors be involved in this Conference every year, and the Councillors Forum provides the opportunity to discuss these issues of importance to Local Government decision makers.
“The FMA Conference is not only for technical experts, and I encourage all Councillors involved in floodplain management decision-making to participate in the 2023 Conference in Sydney, and provide us with presentations on their
experiences and case studies.”
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AUSTRALIA'S COSTLIEST FLOOD EVER
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The Insurance Council of Australia (ICA) has provided updated data on the storms and floods that
impacted South-East Queensland and coastal New South Wales in February and March, showing that the event is estimated to be Australia’s costliest flood ever.
Using actual claims costs from 197,000 claims across both states, the event is estimated to have cost $3.35 billion in insured losses.
This makes the event the costliest flood in Australia’s history.
ICA CEO Andrew Hall said “We knew that this year’s east coast flooding was one of the biggest floods in our history, but these updated numbers show that in monetary terms it was in fact the biggest ever.
“Only four other disasters have cost more, and this is not a record we want to beat. That’s why it’s imperative that governments at State and Federal level commit to a significant increase in investment in programs to lessen the
impact of future events.
“We also need to plan better so we no longer build homes in harms way, make buildings more resilient to the impacts of extreme weather, and remove state insurance taxes which only discourage adequate insurance
cover.”
For more details see: https://insurancecouncil.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/220503-East-Coast-flood-event-costs-update.pdf
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ANU DISASTER RESILIENCE INSTITUTE WINS PROJECT FUNDING
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The Australian National University’s Institute for Climate, Energy and Disaster Solutions (ICEDS) has been successful in winning project funding under the National Recovery and Resilience Agency’s National Disaster Risk Package.
Its proposal, Partnering with local communities in regional Australia to increase resilience to flood risk, was outlined in the November FMA Flyer, when flood-prone
community organisations were invited to nominate.
A central focus of the project will be developing the first ever Australian guidelines for integrating a natural assets-based
approach to mitigation of flooding by rivers. The guidelines will provide communities with new data and information, building capability for proactive flood mitigation, with an emphasis on multi-benefit and multi-hazard approaches.
“The guidelines will be integrated with existing national, state and local government flood management guides, enhancing them to
account for the additional risks posed by a changing climate,” said Dr Roslyn Prinsley, Head of Disaster Solutions at ICEDS and Chief Investigator on the project.
“We need to rethink the way we plan and prepare for flooding. Sea-level rise, the nature and frequency of storms, and other
climate-affected drivers are exposing vulnerabilities in flood risk management strategies that have been implemented over the past century. With an increased frequency and severity of extreme weather events due to climate change, we need to learn from these experiences and prepare better for floods,” she said.
Another output of the project will be a tool aimed to empower Local Governments with the necessary capacity and capability to
decide which flood mitigation solutions are suitable in their situation.
For details see: https://iceds.anu.edu.au/news-events/news/anu-partners-regional-communities-flood-solutions
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FLOODPLAIN MANAGEMENT GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE WEBINAR
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FMA Member AECOM will provide a global perspective on floodplain management at its Water Wednesday
Technical Session, involving flood risk management specialists from Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
Recent floods across eastern Australia have highlighted how Australian flood risk management has evolved and built on learnings from earlier contemporary flooding events including 2011, 2013, 2017 and 2019. Hear how the
Australian flood risk management approach compares globally and what lessons can further enhance these efforts in Australia.
The webinar will be held on Wednesday 15 June, for details see: https://communications.aecom.com/webmail/377462/1074453023/7d6a7e7dd0255ec9ce24fceca80c9635b9f0851a307915915c251ee09a343fa3
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EAST COAST FLOODS WEBINAR
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FMA Member Risk Frontiers is hosting
a webinar on the east coast floods covering a diverse range of topics from climate to insurance, flood safety, impacts and reflections.
Risk Frontiers says that the recent floods have resulted in the highest insurance losses of any Australian flood event. The resilience of communities has been
tested and there are now opportunities to shape a more resilient future.
The webinar will be held on Thursday 16 June, for details see: https://riskfrontiers.com/events
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ONE IN 25 AUSTRALIAN HOMES UNINSURABLE BY 2030
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One in 25 Australian properties will be effectively uninsurable by 2030, due to rising risks of extreme
weather and climate change, a detailed analysis from the Climate Council has found.
Within Australia’s top 10 electorates most at-risk of climate impacts, that number rises to one in seven homes, as climate change fuels worse and more frequent
disasters.
Uninsurable Nation: Australia’s Most Climate-Vulnerable Places outlines the top 20 most at-risk federal electorates to climate change-related extreme weather events, providing a brief profile of
the top 10. The report states:
- Across all electorates in Australia, 3.6% of properties (520,944) or one in every 25 properties will be uninsurable by 2030. In addition, one in 10 (9%) of properties will reach
the ‘medium risk’ classification by 2030, with annual average damage costs equalling 0.2% or more of the property replacement cost.
- Riverine flooding poses the biggest risk to properties. Of the properties classified as ‘high risk’ by 2030, the majority (80%) of that risk is due to riverine
flooding.
The Climate Council’s report is at: https://www.climatecouncil.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/CC_Report-Uninsurable-Nation_V5-FA_Low_Res_Single.pdf
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We wanted to take the opportunity to thank all of you who attended the FMA Conference in Toowoomba. It was such an exciting time to be able to connect with you in person after all this time and pass out some of our cheeky YFM stickers at the FMA booth! If you've
added one of the stickers to your collection, we'd love to see it - send us a pic with your sticker! (If you missed out, we'll make sure some are available at the upcoming FMA Meetings in Brisbane and Sydney.)
In the next few weeks we'll be announcing our upcoming events and we don't want you to miss any, so make sure you keep an eye on floods.asn.au/yfm. Also, check out the panels on the right side of that page to get familiar with the YFM leaders in each of our Chapters in Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria.
The YFM documentary film about the Brisbane River will be made available very shortly in the Members' Section of floods.asn.au, and it's an excellent watch. We hope you enjoy it as much as we did!
We're always looking for your feedback on how best to facilitate the professional growth of our Young Floodplain Managers, so if you have ideas or suggestions, or would like to volunteer your time please get in touch.
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The FMA Flyer reaches a wide range of industry professionals from Australia and
overseas, and if you have any recent projects or exciting news we would love to share it with our readers.
Send through details of your stories and we can include them in our upcoming issues by contacting projectservices@floods.asn.au.
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UPCOMING MEETINGS AND EVENTS
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Molino Stewart
Natural Hazard and Spatial Analyst
If you are interested in promoting a vacant position with us, please contact us.
Please remember that while we circulate Vacant Positions in this monthly Flyer, sometimes position closing deadlines don't align with the time of its distribution. Make sure you head to floods.asn.au/jobs to check for Vacant Positions that may not be listed here due to shorter closing dates.
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TRAVELLING CAPS AND BEANIES
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This year at the Toowoomba Conference we gave out a bunch of fabulous FMA bucket hats - we want to see how they look! Send us your photos!
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